With cannabis to be legalized across Canada on July 1, 2018, a host of issues have arisen regarding social, economic and public health concerns that legalization may impact. On Nov. 30, McGill’s Department of Psychiatry held an academic conference to address some of these issues, specifically mental health, especially in young people, as well as the potential use of cannabis as a medicine for neuropsychiatric disorders. In all, some 200 people attended the event, held at the Faculty Club.
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A new partnership between the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) and the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (The Neuro) will use a unique open science framework to help scientists discover new targets for drug development for neurological diseases. The partnership, called NeuroSGC, will initially focus on Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), two of the most common neurodegenerative diseases.
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A unique industry-academia partnership will increase the rate at which promising drug compounds can be tested as potential treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disease with no known cure that affects 200,000 people worldwide. The partnership between The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (MNI) and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Takeda) will allow compounds developed by Takeda scientists to be tested on cell lines produced at the MNI.
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McGill has been awarded nine new Canada Research Chairs (CRC) and five renewals, for a total investment of $9.7 million in research and development. The new and renewed chairs come from across the university and their studies range widely, from the neural basis of brain disorders to the geology of fault lines. Every year, the federal government invests approximately $265 million through the CRC Program to help postsecondary institutions attract and retain the world’s most accomplished and promising minds.
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In a recent opinion piece for Infectious Disease Hub, Dr. Nitika Pant Pai, Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Medical Scientist at the RI-MUHC and Founder/President of the RI-MUHC start-up Sympact-X, gives a succinct review of the HIV self-testing strategy that has developed over the last five years. The question that now comes to mind is whether HIV self-testing will end the HIV epidemic.
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The product of a collaboration between the McGill University Faculty of Medicine’s School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill Student Health Services and McGill’s Social Equity and Diversity Education (SEDE) Office, voice and communication training workshops developed for the transgender student population will be held on November 30 and December 7.
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The federal government is drafting the 2018 budget. As part of the process, people are being asked to answer a series of online questions regarding how to optimize government spending. Broken down into four themes (Progress for the Middle Class; the Economy of Tomorrow; Lifelong Learning; and Gender Equality), the short surveys (3 – 4 questions per theme) include topics like funding for scientific research and increased STEM training. Take 10 minutes and let your voice be heard.
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On November 17, McGill University’s Department of Family Medicine signed an agreement with the Zhengzhou University School of Medicine and Zhengzhou Central Hospital in order to provide training for general practitioners in the coming year. The training will be completed in two ways, with a cohort of Chinese doctors coming to Montreal for an intensive two-week course (joining teachers from Beijing with whom a contract was signed in September of this year) and a potential additional group of Chinese GPs in Henan province receiving training via a 12-month distance blended education program.
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The 3rd Canadian General Hospital (McGill) was the first military hospital to be mounted and run by a university Faculty of Medicine during the First World War. Initiated by McGill University’s Dean of Medicine (1914-1921), Herbert Stanley Birkett, the hospital accepted its first patients on the French coast about 40 miles from the front in August 1915. From then until it closed in 1919, the hospital admitted 143,762 patients and performed 11,395 surgeries. « It was the premier hospital of the Allied Forces, » says Lt-Col Andrew Beckett. Lt-Col Beckett, member of the Royal Canadian Medical Services, Assistant Professor of Surgery at McGill, and Montreal General Hospital trauma surgeon, and Dr. Edward J. Harvey, Professor of Surgery at McGill and orthopedic trauma surgeon at the Montreal General Hospital, recently wrote a remembrance of the unit, « No. 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) in the Great War: service and sacrifice, » published in the Canadian Journal of Surgery.
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Last week, Grand Challenges Canada announced a CDN $2 million investment in 20 Canadian innovations to address persistent challenges in women’s and children’s health in low- and middle-income countries. Hatched in Canadian institutions from coast-to-coast, the bold ideas embrace a range of creative solutions to save and improve lives of some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable women and children across Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. Part of the ninth round of funding of the Stars in Global Health Project, each selected project will receive seed grants of approximately CDN $100,000 to develop and test their innovations, funded by Grand Challenges Canada with the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through Global Affairs Canada.
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